The Haunting Of Alma Fielding

Kate Summerscale Bloomsbury, £18.99

Kate Summerscale is best known for The Suspicions Of Mr Whicher, an account of a real-life Victorian whodunnit. Her latest non-fiction book is about hunting ghosts rather than catching murderers – but it is every bit as much a detective story as Mr Whicher.

On the eve of the Second World War there was a poltergeist craze in Britain. Summerscale has tracked down the case notes of Nandor Fodor, a Hungarian-Jewish refugee who became an eminent psychic researcher.

Fodor investigated everything from a possessed mongoose to a levitating 18-stone house painter.

A scrupulous and honest man, he became unpopular in his profession for denouncing fraudulent mediums.

He was particularly fascinated by the case of Alma Fielding, an ordinary suburban wife whose house was a constant riot of flying crockery and toppling wardrobes. He read about her after she told her story to a newspaper, then paid her to become his research subject.

As Fodor probed the activities of ‘Jimmy’ the poltergeist, Mrs Fielding seemed to develop eerie supernatural powers, including the ability to steal items from shops while standing outside and to be seemingly in two places at once.

Was she just a con artist with remarkable conjuring skills? And did Fodor put her mental health in danger with his probing of her psyche?

Summerscale’s account of their strange relationship is astonishingly gripping, with the bonus of a pleasingly chilling spookiness.